Children and Music
By Robert
Bazell
Posted: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 3:45 PM by Sam Singal
 We
have all seen cash strapped school districts forced to cut music and
other arts education programs. We have heard the
complaints about how "No Child Left Behind" and other programs
increasingly force a teach to the test mentality that emphasizes
measures of reading and math scores over a broader
education. But what influence does teaching the
music and the arts really have on a child's ability to learn other
things?
The Dana
Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports
brain research and education among other projects, commissioned some of
the nation's top neuroscientists to take a deep look at the question.
You can see the report out today on the
Foundation's website.
There are many fascinating findings -- many pieces in a big puzzle that
is far from solved. But it is clear there is a
powerful connection between the arts and ability to learn many subjects
The Dana report
includes work from many researchers. For Nightly
News tonight we focus only on the work of Dr. Elizabeth Spelke in the
Laboratory for Developmental Studies at
Harvard. Most
of Dr. Spelke's time is spent studying babies but this project she
looked at young people and found that those who intensively study music
have an easier time with tasks that measure aptitude for geometry.
Now she and her team are looking at the babies again to see how
early in life this connection is established.
Yesterday a
representative from the
National Association for Music Education
noticed the promotions for tonight's story and called my attention to a
recent
Harris poll
commissioned by the organization on the importance of music education to
a child's future.
|
